Miscellaneous Forum

Some of the pages do not show the header pic and below I will give an example here
Here is my page of Slovakia :
" Bratislava and the High Tatras Mountains" - Slovakia by samitbabu

But when I check my Travel Pages, the main pic does not appear.
Can someone check this please.

My mother in her late 70s fell and have a Colle's fracture (dinner fork) ie fracture at the wrist. She was on a cast right up to above elbow for 6 weeks. Now off it for a week and has gone for physio twice once at a public hospital and second private-physio more helpful. My question is, the physiotherapist said to come back thrice a week for the first two weeks and subsequent weeks, twice. Is this the most ideal in helping the wrist gain maximum healing to regain mobility?

I am wondering should it be coupled with accupuncture, would bone setting help and at which point. I am not sure what lies ahead. All I want is for her to be back to normal as much as possible as her independence has been hampered alot with not being able to drive at all. So having the right medical assistance is essential and I am not sure if i am on the right track.

The chiro doctor (public hospital) said to go for physio not saying when to go back to see him. The physio will report back on progress i guess.

Thank you.

86 more sleeps and counting.

These would be amazing and I'd definitely invest in a pair or two for our travels.

boredpanda.com/real-time-tra...

theweek.com/speedreads/65149...

I'm thinking that this would be a good place to have the next Friday VT pub(!)...

Bill

I have just created and published my first Itinerary here. It is for Tbilisi and Georgia.
But now that I have navigated out of this page, where can I see my itinerary in case I need to edit and revisit it ?

Please let me know . Thanks

Today I sold my beloved car.
After my stroke and heart attack and my now impaired vision and the stupid cost of car insurance, I knew that I would not be driving anymore.
A nice young lady who came all the way from Burton on Trent, fell in love with the car, paid cash and drove it away.
As the car vanished down the road, I knew it was the end of a big part of my life.

What would you miss if it was to be no more?

Just a note to share the news. Louisiana's Zydeco music legend Stanley "Buckwheat Zydeco" Dural Jr.. lost his battle with Cancer at 68. Buckwheat was to Zydeco music what Bob Marley was to Reggae. The Creole roots of Zydeco music is celebrated by the accordion played by Buckwheat. He introduced Zydeco music to the world, and he will be missed.

youtube.com/watch?v=vjFYEoH9...

youtube.com/watch?v=bbi3Y99V...

.....and an entire concert.......

youtube.com/watch?v=Vda7EuQc...

Using the last letter of the previous travel destination (Country in Brackets), suggest a place that you have been to, or would like to visit and tell us why (or a point of interest). I will start this off with my current home town: Cordova (Alaska).
Cordova (Alaska) A small place with many festivals. Ice Worm festival in February, Shorebirds festival in May, Salmon Jam in July, Fungus festival in September. Not bad for a town of 2,000 people.
(Suggested by Cho45)

Hi All - I'm excited to announce a brand new look to travel guide tip group pages! Please note this is a 50/50 test so only half of all visitors to the site will see it. But I wanted to tell you how you can force it.

When on a tip group page, if you do not see the new design, simply add ?poolBehavior=A to the end of the URL structure. For example, Grand Palace, Bangkok

We've also introduce a single tip page. These new pages will be indexed and searchable by google and other search engines meaning more referrals to your pages directly, which will also count toward page views! You can see a sample here. But go at sunset....or dawn for solitude: Temple of the Dawn - Wat Arun Bangkok,

Please remember this is a test phase and as such, we are looking to make improvements. We already have our own list we are working on for next week, but like always, we value your feedback and would love to hear your thoughts. Look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you!

VT Team

I am about to book flight to Moscow for next month, and I found cheap light with S7 Airlines to Domodedevo .
The same flight with Airberlin is €100 more expensive and they both go nearly at same time.
Now I would like to know is S7 Airlines legit and how good it is.. I have been looking on the net for more info but is bit sporadic.. So can you please enlighten me, if you have used it?
Many thanks

P.s posted on Russia forum too

September 22nd is 'World Car Free Day'. In several countries promotional campaigns are held to encourage people to use public transportation, carpool, ...
Here in Belgium we have the 'Car Free Festival' ... Young talents show their musical talents in trainstations, at busstops, on train/tram/metro,...
Several cities (amongst them Brussels) have had a car free day last sunday or will have one next week.

Is there any such campaign in your country?
Do you participate? This one is easy for me: I walk or cycle the mere 800 metres from my home front door to the door at work :-).

I don't mean this as a political question; rather a serious question on the growing problem of cities withdrawing their bids or even just refusing to bid on holding the Summer Olympics because of the cost, because of security issues, and because of being stuck with sports venues that the city can't use effectively after the Olympics are over.

I see that Rome just withdrew its application to host the Summer Olympics, joining Boston and Hamburg who have also withdrawn their bids, and Lord knows how many cities who won't even bother to apply. Two huge reasons are that (1) the host city invariably spends way more money than they intended, and (2) they are left with large sports venues that they have no way of effectively using. Even the Chinese sports venues are deteriorating, yet if any country could just order cities and sports teams to use the venues, you would think that China could.

Honestly, I feel that we should strongly consider just returning the Summer Games to Greece and holding them there every 4 years (the Winter Games are a different story, and I don't think that they are such a problem). This would have multiple benefits: (1) the venues in Greece would be maintained (they aren't now) because they would be used every 4 years, (2) since tourism is the biggest industry in Greece, this would be a huge and permanent boon to the Greek economy, and (3) it would avoid the non-stop appearance of bribery, fraud, and theft that occurs with the choice of the new city and the massive public spending projects that we hear about in every city. Don't we seem to hear every 4 years of bribes taken by the IOC to pick this city or that? If we just stopped picking a new city every 4 years, we could eliminate a huge concern about the integrity of the Games.

No, I am not suggesting that we go back to Olimpia in the Peloponnesus - pretty place that it is - but if we would just settle on one place (i.e. the existing venues in and around Athens from the 2004 Games), we would solve a lot of problems...and help out the birthplace of democracy at the same time...what do you guys think?

Bill

I am trying to recover from Airline induced rage....I'm planning a family vacation (6 adults) to Costa Rica for next March. 2 members will fly from Chicago, and 4 from the Northeast USA. I watched ticket prices for weeks, and I only observed prices going up, no downward movement. Finally, I found an excellent flight on United airlines, flying out of my local small-market airport, with only 1 layover for $250pp (one way). The flight arrived in CR at 1pm, and I quickly found a similar flight for the Chicago folks, also arriving around 1pm. I bought the tickets, then used points on another airline to purchase return tickets.

Not 4 days later, I get an email from United that they've changed my Northeast departure itinerary, and we are now arriving in CR (after 2 connections) at 9:15pm! With this itinerary I would have to drive in our rental car on unfamiliar roads to find our rental house in the dead of night! And the Chicago family members would be waiting for us at the airport for 8 hours!

Well, needless to say, I jumped online and found a less bad itinerary, but still not as good as the first one, and called United and was able to make the change. However....the new itinerary is out of a different airport, farther away, and I'll now have to pay for parking. And, our return flight is still to the original airport. So unless I'm able to find a comparable airfare for my return flight to the other airport, and make the change, I'll end up leaving 2 cars at two different airports.

Ugh! Why do legacy airlines do this to us?

Will Virtual tourist have an iOS or Android App in the near future ?

France has begun a program similar to the "talk to a Swede" program. You call the number and are routed to a random, multilingual French citizen for a conversation. It's meant to circumvent the tourist bureaus and connect you with real people who can answer your questions. thelocal.fr/20160919/what-ha...

Would you be likely to call the number?

If a program like this started in your home country, would you volunteer to be a random person?

I recently bought an 18 inch bronze sculpture of King Arthur, reproduction of the bronze at the Hofkirche. It is highly detailed and shows the chain he is wearing, with what appears to be 4 griffins hanging on the chain, each clutching a ram on the front of the armor and repeated on the back... but the griffin on the back of Arthur's right shoulder is not clutching a ram, but instead is hanging upside down on the chain, while the ram is suspended below it. Question: Is this odd diversion in the griffin-ram theme, characteristic of the statue at the Hofkirche? Thank You! Larry Washington, USA

Kasha (7) and I are taking a week off in February while husband goes to visit family in India. We're coming from NY/NJ and have a total of 9 days including travel time. We like wildlife and are thinking of Costa Rica or the Amazon or.....? We can do any place that's nice with a beach as well and would prefer to head east but it doesn't seem like the weather in any part of Europe will be warm enough to swim. Any thoughts?

As we know Sri Lanka is one of a greatest place to visit in the world mainly because of the bio diversity. You simply find the difference traveling in 3 or 4 hours into the countryside. I am a Sri Lankan and use to travel frequently in diffract areas of the country. Last few days I was in Sigiriya and Dambulla. All are well with dry weather and lots of local and foreign tourists are around there.

But one incident touched my heart so much. Because in the world of bio diversity we humans enjoy while some of other creatures are suffering. I sow lots of monkeys beg for drop of water in case no where to find any water source around. I saw there eyes are prying when people carrying water bottles drinking on their way to the Dambulla cave temple. No one seems could think of those helpless creatures but enjoy so much seen them.

When one drop of water fallen on the dried stone Monkeys came and lick it. People trow away the empty water bottles, they come and lick them. My request is carry one extra water bottle for them and fill small stone pits with water and they can consume it. Think that we all feel thirsty.

Just wondering what other VT’ers have experienced with easyJet recently as I just took a return flight with them from Manchester to Funchal and compared too many previous trips, they appear to have gone to the Dogs !!
The flight was delayed on the way out – I then went to pick up friends the next day who had caught an easyJet flight from London and that was also delayed – Then my flight home was also delayed and when we eventually arrived back at Manchester, it was just a catalogue of errors – First there was no driver for the sky bridge and when the pilot tried to find out what the delay was, he was told by another easyJet pilot that they had landed over half an hour earlier on a stand and were still awaiting busses, then when we eventually managed to get off the plane, there was another ½ hour delay before the luggage appeared on the carrousel.

Does this sound familiar to anyone – OR was I just Very Unlucky ??

Thanks
Rob

What did you do with your billet-doux? Or what are you planning to do with them? Leave them around after you have left or burn them to a cinder so no one else can read them later? Or will you ask your 'bitter-half' what to do with them?

Why do I feel exhausted? I just wrote my 10,002nd tip on VT. Not all are that good of course but I do enjoy writing them, especially for the less traveled destinations.

Looks like I'm in the money.......

Good Evening I am Ad**s Robert,I contacted you concerning the fund $ 9.5 M***n dollars deposited in a bank here by my late client who bear the same name with you. Please contact for more details in my private email (rob*****r@gmail.com).i wait for reply.

What snacks do you bring when traveling? Looking for fresh ideas for snacks that are (relatively) nutritious and travel well. The usual that I bring are granola bars, peanuts, instant oatmeal, and dark chocolate.

I am just beginning to discover the joys of reading on Kindle. I find it especially useful for reading old books that hve been scanned and stored as .pdf files, for example WM Leakes "Travels in Northern Greece" (1835), one of the first books in English about travelling in Albania.

Do you use Kindle, and if so do you carry it when you travel in preference to 'real' books? Any disadvantages or advantages of travelling with a Kindle apart from obvious weight considerations?

Hi friends , after long , i am here, i will not share reason, today i will share something interesting......... Some people come into our lives and quickly go.. Some people become friends and stay awhile... leaving beautiful footprints on our hearts. and we are never quite the same because we have made a good friend!! Yesterday is history. Tomorrow a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present! I think this is special...live and savour every moment... This is not a dress rehearsal! Right Now - -somebody is thinking of you. -somebody is caring about you. -somebody misses you -somebody wants to talk to you. -somebody wants to be with you. -somebody hopes you aren't in trouble. -somebody is thankful for the support you have provided. -somebody wants to hold your hand. -somebody hopes everything turns out all right. -somebody wants you to be happy. -somebody wants you to find him/her. -somebody is celebrating your successes. -somebody wants to give you a gift. -somebody thinks that you ARE a gift. -somebody loves you. -somebody admires your strength. -somebody is thinking of you and smiling. -somebody wants to be your shoulder to cry on. __________________ "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." ( Source Internet )

If you want to join us at the London treasure hunt following the flames of the Great Fire of London on Saturday 11AM AT Liberty Bounds Pub sign up at VT Meeting

If you want to join us at the London treasure hunt following the flames of the Great Fire of London on Saturday 11AM AT Liberty Bounds Pub VT Meeting

Hello! It will be my first visit to Ho Chi Minh next month. Could you recommend native foods that you enjoyed (from appetizer to soup to main course to dessert)? Thanks.

Making own pages is painstaking job and I wonder does it worth at all, in light of the fact that no one is watching what we have done. Attendance of VT is miserable, there are no more then 10-20 members online in a day!
I could be wrong (it's a matter of individual taste) but the look of VT home page is total failure, unattractive and unimaginative. Such look of open page no one can attract.